


That We Could Even Hold Hands

by jeien



Category: Sound Horizon
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fluff, Long-Distance Relationship, M/M, Meeting In Person For The First Time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-04
Updated: 2016-07-04
Packaged: 2018-07-20 00:30:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7383712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jeien/pseuds/jeien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elef rushes to meet someone at the airport. Leontius watches as he witnesses a moment five years in the making come to fruition.</p>
            </blockquote>





	That We Could Even Hold Hands

**Author's Note:**

> Well, you can blame Eine Klein by Yonezu Kenshi for this one. It's 12:30am, so bear with any mistakes at the moment until I reread it in the morning or afternoon and casually edit it lol.

He heard the grind of metal against metal as the curtains are pulled back. The light shined on his face and he groaned. He heard his sister’s voice, rushed and annoyed, telling him, “Elef, it’s nine already! Get your butt out of bed!”

 _Nine?_ The flight was landing at ten-thirty.

He tried to kick the sheets off himself, sit up and get out of bed in one fluid motion, but his sleep-weighted limbs flailed in an uncoordinated mass. Elef only managed to fall out with a hard thud. Misia mussed up her hair exasperatedly, wondering how the hell her twin brother managed to fail this hard on a day he had spent an entire month preparing for.

“Is he up?” Leontius asked, peeking into the room. Misia jerked her thumb at the wriggling mass of blanket on the floor. “Wow. Hold on, let me help.”  

They both yanked hard on the loose end of the blanket and then pulled up, comically unrolling their brother from his confines. Elef didn’t even think about the collision of face-against-floor—he only pushed himself onto his feet and runs for the bathroom. Leontius and Misia sighed.

“I guess I’ll get his breakfast.”

“And I’ll get our little Chariot ready.”

After a quick shower, some fretting over what clothes to wear, and an impressive throw of a breakfast wrap by Misia, Elef launched himself into the passenger seat of Leontius’s childishly-named car. “Time?!”

“Nine-fifteen,” Leontius said, pulling out of the dirt driveway. “Make sure you don’t get crumbs in Chariot, okay? Cleaning it in this weather’s a little bothersome.”

“Fine. Floor it, will you?”

“Elef, I told you it’s important to try and follow the traffic laws.” Despite his words, Leontius slowly felt himself push down a little more on the gas pedal. “But, well, I guess I can make an exception for today. I know how much this means to you.”

It was hard to breathe, even with the rush of air blowing through the open windows as Leontius sped down twice as fast as the recommended speed limit. Elef felt the cocktail of anxiety, excitement, and stress churn in his stomach. Leontius spared a sideways glance as he pulled into a parking spot five blocks away from the airport. “Elef?”

“I…” Elef swallowed thickly and unbuckled his seatbelt. “I’m okay, I just need a moment.”

“We don’t have a moment,” Leontius said, laughing. He clapped a hand onto his brother’s shoulder. “It’ll be fine. Now come on—it’s ten-twenty. We’re gonna have to sprint.”

They wove through the strings of people under a blanket of humidity and sunshine. Elef willed his legs to move faster—he willed away his nerves as he passed Leontius, running across the street and through the airport entrance. His eyes scanned the overhead display for incoming flights. _Ah, there it is!_ The plane from Altenburg had landed seven minutes ago.

“Elef!” he heard his brother’s voice call out from the throng of people around him. Leontius ran over.

“They landed already,” he choked out, still tired from the run. 

Leontius needed a few seconds to catch his breath, but eventually said, “Don’t panic. Let’s see if we can meet him at the baggage claim.”

“I’m not panicking,” Elef said. Leontius patted his back knowingly and they both took the first left on the ground floor. He only vaguely heard his brother talking about what he thinks Misia is making for their celebratory lunch, where they should do for the afternoon if they’re not too tired, and _You know we’re going to tell your embarrassing stories, right?_ Elef was too busy taking slow, deep breaths—taming the harsh beasts that were his heartbeats, pouncing onto his worst fears and aggravating them further. They both walked into baggage claim and looked between the rows of conveyor belts that undulated like rolling tides.

Elef saw blond hair first. He lurched forward out of instinct, but stopped himself to make sure. It was short like a curtain of gold strings. The person it belonged to—a young man—turned his head, showing a portrait-worthy side profile that was unmistakable. He ran without a second thought.

“Tettere!”

The young man whirled around at the sound of his voice. Before he could even get a word out, Elef’s arms wrapped themselves around his shoulders. Tettere was much leaner than what he saw from the other side of the video chat. He was taller by a few centimeters, although Elef knew that when they compared heights one very late night during a storm. He smelled of sharp cologne that reminded him of star anise. And for some reason, Elef noticed just after a few seconds of his embrace, Tettere was wearing a cardigan.

Elef pulled himself back, still keeping a loose hold, and asked in English, “Why the hell are you wearing long sleeves in Greece?!”

“I knew you weren’t really a romantic, but that’s really the first thing you’re gonna say?” Tettere teased, also in English. Elef grumbled quietly about _I told you not to underestimate the weather here, you moron; you’re gonna get heat stroke._ Tettere laughed and returned his embrace. “I know, darling, I was joking. I just figured I’d get cold on the plane, so I took one with me. The rest of my clothes are short-sleeves, I promise.”

“Well, good.” Elef said, unable stop his voice from cracking. He buried his face into Tettere’s shoulder, letting the feeling sink itself into memory. They’d have more time to do that later. “I don’t want you dying on me here.”

“Now wouldn’t that be a memory! The first time we meet face-to-face and I wind up dead. Well, at least it’ll be in your arms, hopefully.”

“You’re fucking terrible.”

“I know. But you still love me, don’t you?” Tettere asked. Elef lifted his head and their eyes met—sunset magenta against morning ocean blue. His throat clenched up at the last moment and he could only manage a strained _Mmhm_ in response. But Tettere, for all the five years they’ve been together, knew the words he wanted to say. Tettere pressed his forehead against Elef’s as their arms still held onto one another. “I still can’t believe it. We actually did this. We’ve been waiting so long for this and… God, I just love you so much.”

The words wrestled themselves out of his throat at last. Elef closed his eyes, feeling the warmth pass between them. “I love you, too. I’d fight the world and everything above and below for this moment—for you. As long as you didn’t do anything stupid, at least.”

“You know, Elef, you really had it going and then you lost it.”

“Shut up. You know I’m bad at saying stuff like that.”

Leontius cleared his voice, making them both turn. It seemed like he had taken the liberty of getting Tettere’s bags from the conveyor while they were having their moment. He greeted Tettere with a smile. “Sorry to interrupt, but don’t you two want to relish in each other’s company at home?”   

“Oh, of course. You’re his older brother, right? Leontius?” Tettere flashed a polite smile of his own and extended his hand. “I’m Albrecht Terrell von der Stolzenberg. You can call me Tettere for short. I know we’ve only exchanged scant emails between one another, but it’s nice to finally meet you in person. Thank you again for inviting me into your home.”

“No, no—thank _you_ for somehow seeing something datable in my brother,” Leontius said, briefly wondering how all that shortened to ‘Tettere.’ Elef huffed out a Greek expletive under his breath. “Anyway, if you don’t mind waiting, I can go get the car for us. We parked a little ways from the airport.”

“I don’t mind at all. I would offer to just walk back with you two, but I know Elef’s going to say no,” They both ignored Elef’s _Why the hell are you both picking on me so much today?!_ They knew why: it was easy to do and the results were cute. Tettere continued. “I need to let my parents know I touched down safely anyway and, knowing them, that’ll take a while.”

Leontius took his leave, promising to come as soon as possible in exchange for an iced coffee. Elef helped with the luggage while Tettere called his parents in Germany and assured them that he arrived safely and no, he wasn’t going to get mugged. The two wandered around the airport in amiable silence afterwards as they let the rush of people and places-to-be pass them by. They got Leontius’s iced coffee and two lemonades for themselves before moving to the front entrance to wait for the car. It was only when they side by the curbside that they knew they resided in the eye of the living world’s hurricane where no one will care to look their way—and, in this temporary space isolated from everything else, they dared to weave their fingers together for the first time. They sipped on their lemonade, experimenting every so often on different ways their hands could hold onto each other, until the white shine of Chariot pulled up in front of them.

“Ready?” Elef asked.

“Yup,” Tettere said, smiling. He soon added, “Just so you know, I barely got any sleep last night or on the plane, so I’m gonna pass out as soon as I get in the car.”

They drove out of the city. Leontius knew that as soon as they got home, a new life would begin to unfold. Tettere would meet Misia, who would invite him in and lead him to the lunch she prepared in their back patio. Orion would come in halfway into the meal unannounced and, after seeing his best friend’s boyfriend was real and not a made-up excuse to get out of bar hopping, would call in Sirius and Orpheus to join the fun. Elef would be livid at the intrusion, trying to stop everyone from spilling embarrassing stories from childhood into adolescence. They would take him to the beach or the mountains on some days, laze around the house on others. On nights, they would gaze at the stars, gather around a fire, and Tettere would finally share stories about his own life and about Germany. They would finally know that his paternal grandfather had the habit of adding ‘teh’ sounds at the end of names ending with t—Al-brech-teh instead of Al-brecht, which lead to combining the ‘teh’ with ‘teh-reh’ from Terrell that formed ‘Tettere.’ And he knew that, when sleep would eventually come, Elef and Tettere would lie in bed, holding onto each other, wishing: for more time, for less distance, for a better way to make this long-distance thing work now that they had their first taste of how things could be.

But when Leontius snuck a quick peek into the rearview mirror, he only saw his brother and his brother’s boyfriend, leaning against one another as they napped, dreaming of a future where every day will be spent in each other’s company.

**Author's Note:**

> Come on, you don't think Leontius would name his car? Everyone names their car. 
> 
> Also, I spent more time trying to make Tettere's name work than I should have.


End file.
